Michael and school

Sorry I haven't been able to let you know how the Brazilian school experience has been going. We are still getting used to the routine and that means mommy doesn't have time to be at the computer.

Michael was somewhat excited for his first day and I was sick to my stomach. I only cried a little though and that was in private. I was so anxious to pick him up and he seemed happy enough in the car with the two neighbor boys, so I was expecting a good report. Steve made it home soon after we had walked in the door, so we sat down to hear all about his first day. Basically, he hated it. (I can say that here, but we have had to remove the word "hate" when talking about school because of his bad attitude. He will never learn to appreciate school with that sort of attitude.) His complaints are that the kids don't respect the teacher and talk all the time. Then the teacher has to yell and/or not let them go out to recess until everyone is quiet. He just can't understand why they don't obey the teacher. Not that he is totally obedient at home, but to be so openly disobedient is hard for him to accept. His other complaint is that he finishes what the teacher tells them to do and then he has to sit and wait "forever" for everyone else to get done. We tried to explain to him that waiting on the other students is very normal and is that it has to do with patience, which is a good skill to learn. He is just spoiled by home school. So, he now has to come up with something good that happened at school each day, and that is usually recess. But on Tuesdays it is indoor soccer for the highlight. On Thursdays he has swimming and judo, but he said the water was cold so he didn't like that so much and he hasn't made up his mind on if he liked judo or not. I think he is waiting to see if the boys do judo correctly or if they get crazy and start hurting each other. I know, he is a regular Eore.

As for home school in the mornings, we are somehow getting it done. I try to finish up with him by 11am so he has time to do his independent work before going to school and then that also gives me time to get lunch on the table. We do lunch the Brazilian way...it is the big meal of the day. We need to be sitting down at the table at noon for him to eat, brush teeth, and get his uniform on for school so we can walk out the door at 12:45pm. Starting in March, we will add piano lessons to the routine two times a week from 9am - 9:45am. We should be able to get some work done before he goes and then I will get lunch almost done while he is gone. Happily, his piano teacher lives just down the block...what a blessing!!! He wants to take guitar, but I told him that as long as his piano teacher lives on our street, he would take piano! (They are with Asas and should be moved to a flight base in northern Brazil in 2009) Anyway, we had some late nights last week with getting his homework done for the Brazilian school and that made him tired in the mornings, but after that happened twice I have been able get him to bed on time.

Okay, here are some pictures for you! The boys with Michael are Natan and Daniel, our neighbors.

Finally...

Steve got home today around noon. He flew out of Manaus at 3:30am and arrived in Brasília at 8am. Then he got a ride to Anápolis. We are so glad to have him home! He does have to take the second Columbia to Victória either tomorrow or Monday, but that will be a quick trip. He is very tired and has an ear infection, so I am hoping this trip to Victória can wait until Monday.

Almost home!

Steve landed in Boa Vista shortly before lunch and then headed on to Manaus around 2pm. They had no troubles with customs because the officials were eager to go to lunch! Good strategy! He should have landed in Manuas about 30 minutes ago and he will try to catch a flight late tonight that will arrive in Brasilia tomorrow morning.

Michael's school

First, the guys made it to Grenada and are currently on the beach. They head to Boa Vista tomorrow as early as possible with hopes of making it to Manaus before the end of the day. This is their last chance to enjoy a beach in the Caribbean! And these pictures prove that it is a beautiful as I had imagined!

Michael, Maira, and I went to the two schools that are close to our house today. I had been praying that God would make it clear to me if I really should put Michael in a school and then which school would be best. God clearly answered my prayers today. We went to the school where he has two friends already. They greeted me so nicely and right away took us for a tour. Then the director (principal) had me sit in her office to talk to her. Michael and Maira stayed with me and she asked me all sorts of questions about what he had already learned. As I prayed to God, I told Him that I wanted to find a school that would understand why I am homeschooling and not criticize me for it. (home schooling does not exist here) Well, the director totally understood and was very supportive. She said she would put Michael in second grade and that the teachers would do everything possible to help him out until he gets the swing of things. Then she turned her attention to Michael and asked him if he liked the school and if he wanted to go to school there. He said he liked the school, but wasn't sure he wanted to go to school. She asked him why, and he said he was kinda scared. She asked him why he was scared. He just shrugged his shoulders, not able to put into words what he was feeling. She asked him if he was scared that he would not be able to do the school work like the other kids? He immediately replied yes, that he was very scared about that. She talked to him for awhile about how we are each good at different things, but that nobody is good at everything. She assured him he would be the best in his English class! That made him smile and he was quickly put at ease. She also told him that he should always ask his teacher if he doesn't understand something and that he can ask again and again until he understands. And that he could come to her office and talk to her whenever he needed to and that she would do whatever she could to help. Well, I was sold, but I felt like I needed to at least look at the other school. I explained this to the director, and we headed over to the other school. We spent probably all of 5 minutes there. No comparison. The lady I spoke with (I'm not even sure who she was...secretary, director, etc.) immediately said Michael would have to be in 1st grade because he had not been to a Brasilian school yet. She showed me his classroom and there were twelve 5-6 year olds...clearly much younger than Michael and he would have major self-esteem issues if put in there with those little kids! She asked no questions about Michael or what he knew. I went right back over to the first school and enrolled him. Michael is even looking forward to going tomorrow! We decided that he would just go during snack time and recess tomorrow so he could make some friends before getting into the classroom setting. He is open to the idea of staying after recess, but he will make that decision on the spot tomorrow. He already has his uniform (all schools use uniforms here) and tomorrow I need to get all the materials on a nice long list that I was given! I can't believe he is going to go to school. We will have to really push in the mornings to get homeschool done in time for me to get lunch on the table and get him to school by 1pm. But I feel that God is opening this door, so in we go!

On to Grenada

The guys are off to Grenada today. They didn't have any trouble with the plane yesterday and had a little bit of time on the beach in St. Croix. They only have about 4 hours of flight today, so they are planning to hit the beach again! Hard life, eh? But seriously, they deserve it!

St. Croix

The guys got the "okay" to put the plane back together and continue on. There was no crack in the cylinder and they couldn't find any explaination for the engine cutting off when put in the idle position. They took off from Providenciales this morning and are landing right now on the island of St. Croix. Steve will let me know in a bit if they will continue on today or stay on St. Croix for the night. They were not getting very good airspeed today, so I am expecting them to call it a day. Thanks for your prayers!

Not so good news

Well...not so good news today. They did make it to the island of Providenciales yesterday and Steve was dismayed at how slow this airplane is compared to the Columbia! It took them 5 hours to get to Providenciales, which was just their first fuel stop when he was in the Columbia. He got spoiled! The bad news is that they are having some maintenance issues with the plane. The problem with the airplane is that the engine stops when put in the idle position. Apparently, it did this when they landed at Fort Lauderdale as well. It does not appear to be anything critical, but they have to investigate it. They are in contact with the JAARS maintenance staff and have gone through several theories of what it might be, but none of the theories have proven to be accurate yet. So now, with all their investigating and looking at the engine, they have discovered an “apparent” cylinder crack. The small crack at the base of the cylinder does not seem to have relation with the symptoms they are seeing of High Cylinder Heat Temp (CHT) and low Exhaust Gas Temp (EGT), but since it looks like a crack it must be investigated. So now they are out on the ramp pulling the exhaust stacks off to get a better look at the cylinder. Most likely, they will be spending another night on the island of Providenciales.

Steve said he would contact me later on today to give me an update on their progress.

One more time...

Steve left the house at 6:30am today to catch a 9:15 flight out of Brasilia. Unfortunately, the flight out of Brasilia left very late and that caused him to miss his connecting flight to Miami at 1pm. So he has been waiting in São Paulo all day for the midnight flight. They did put him up in a hotel, so that was good. He should be boarding about now...



The plan is for them to take off for the island of Provedenciales before lunch tomorrow. He lands in Miami at 6am, then he will catch the train to Fort Lauderdale and meet up with the two Wycliffe pilots. This trip will go slower since the guys are wanting to make the most out of being in the Caribbean. Steve has yet to get his feet wet in the Caribbean, but that should change on this trip. Not that they will be spending days on each island, but they plan to have time at the end of each afternoon to find the closest beach!



On the home front, I am trying to make an important decision this week. Michael is not wanting to move up to the 8-9 year old class at church because he doesn't write in cursive yet and because he doesn't feel secure about reading in Portuguese. I've been kicking the idea around in my head about sending him to a Brazilian school in the afternoons since their school days are only half days anyway. Then maybe he would get the practice he needs in reading Portuguese and also get over his fears of being different. From what I've been told, Brazilian schools do not teach printing. They start right off with cursive. I don't know how true that is or how wide-spred that is, but it is true that all the kids his age are writing in cursive. I went with the highly recommended "Handwriting Without Tears" series in which cursive is started in the 3rd grade. I ordered the cursive book already and we have almost finished all the 2nd grade handwriting material. We will start writing in cursive next week, so that problem is easier to solve. Michael is just very shy and nervous about new situations. And here he is a missionary kid. I want to help him, but I don't know the best way to do that. We will visit two schools this week and I am praying that God will show me what to do. I will continue home schooling with him in the mornings, so sending him to another school in the afternoons will be a heavy schedule. This will only be until the end of June since we will be going on furlough in August. I'm open to any advise, opinions, counsel, etc.

Home again!

Steve made it home last night without any trouble. He even brought snickers, reeces peanut butter cups, tortilla chips, and salsa!! What a sweet hubby I have! I asked him if it would bother him if I gained about 10 pounds in the next two weeks as I eat it all! (smile) I'll have to pace myself!

Steve heads to Miami again on Sunday morning to bring the third airplane down. This one should be pretty fun and relaxing since there will be three pilots, all of whom are very familiar with the airplane (Cessna 206), and there is no time crunch. I believe the plan is to take off from Fort Lauderdale on Monday. This plane will take a bit longer because it is not as fast as the Columbia.